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May. 11th, 2011 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leafizhilzha asked:
Is there a particular meaning to the pattern on the robes that the priest and his deacon/sub-deacons wear during Mass? One looks (sensibly) like a cross, but the other like an "H" (seen from the back).
Alas, this is one that doesn't have a particularly meaningful answer (at least as far as the sub-deacon and the deacon's vestments go).
On terminology: Izhilzha is talking about a High Mass*, which is a Mass celebrated by the priest with the assistance of a deacon and a subdeacon, and several servers, who carry candles, or swing the thurible, or help set up the altar for the consecration of the bread and wine. You don't need all this for a valid Mass, but if you just have the priest (who may or may not have a server to help her) then it's a Low Mass. High Mass is very definitely an Anglo-Catholic thing (within Anglicanism, that is).
Deacon: deacon is the lowest grade of ordination. Deacons can carry out weddings and funerals. You get permanent deacons, who spend all their life as deacons and concentrate on pastoral ministry, but you have to spend a year as a deacon before you are ordained a priest. You also don't stop being a deacon when you become a priest, so often in the context of a Mass, the deacon will be another priest from the parish. The deacon's main role in the service is to assist the priest, and to read the Gospel. Sub-deacons can be lay people (I've done it a number of times), but still get to wear the fancy vestments; their role in the service is mostly confined to reading the Epistle and looking pretty/ pious.
There's no rules about what you can or can't put on a chasuble or dalmatic (what the deacon wears) or tunicle (what the sub-deacon wears), though if you've ever spent any time at bad vestments you may come to think it isn't a bad idea.
Often the chasuble will have a cross on the back (and front), as in this nice black set**; the symbolism is obvious, especially in an eastward facing Mass, where the priest spends a large chunk of time facing away from the congregation, so as you look at the altar you can also focus on the cross (rather than on the priest's face, as in a westward-facing Mass). But you might just have a panel of ornamental fabric - as in this rather fine antique French set. The only real rule is that the deacon and sub-deacon's kit is less fancy; the 'H' shape, or vertical bars, is common, but I don't believe it has any meaning.
The chasuble/ dalmatic/ tunicle is worn over a cassock, an amice (which is a square white cloth with strings at the corner which you tie round your neck to hide your collar) and an alb, a long white collarless garment. All the vestments have short prayers associated them which the priest says as he puts them on, though the only one I can remember off hand is the one for the amice which says something about the helmet of salvation (this makes more sense than you'd think, because to put it on securely you have to put the cloth on your head, tie the strings round your chest, and then pull the amice proper down and adjust it so it lies well). Actually it has a practical purpose as well as a symbolic one, because it stops you sweating into the alb or, worse still, the chasuble/ dalmatic. Amices are much easier to wash.
The dalmatic, incidentally, used to be Byzantine court dress; most of the vestments seem to originate in ordinary "good" clothes.
* There's a good guide to what happens at Mass, with some reasonable pictures, here. NB that the 'fogginess' of some of the pictures is not poor picture quality, it's smoke.///
**The whole gallery is worth a look, if you're interested in vestments, as it explains what the priest wears, but I warn you that (a) Fr Yenda apparently can't spell and (b) he has disgustingly camp taste in lacy albs and (c) very few people actually wear maniples these days, though - unlike albs made entirely from lace - I think that's a bit of a shame. Though given my natural clumsiness, possibly I shouldn't try to revive the custom, as it ceases to be pious and reverent when you catch the chalice as you turn round....
Is there a particular meaning to the pattern on the robes that the priest and his deacon/sub-deacons wear during Mass? One looks (sensibly) like a cross, but the other like an "H" (seen from the back).
Alas, this is one that doesn't have a particularly meaningful answer (at least as far as the sub-deacon and the deacon's vestments go).
On terminology: Izhilzha is talking about a High Mass*, which is a Mass celebrated by the priest with the assistance of a deacon and a subdeacon, and several servers, who carry candles, or swing the thurible, or help set up the altar for the consecration of the bread and wine. You don't need all this for a valid Mass, but if you just have the priest (who may or may not have a server to help her) then it's a Low Mass. High Mass is very definitely an Anglo-Catholic thing (within Anglicanism, that is).
Deacon: deacon is the lowest grade of ordination. Deacons can carry out weddings and funerals. You get permanent deacons, who spend all their life as deacons and concentrate on pastoral ministry, but you have to spend a year as a deacon before you are ordained a priest. You also don't stop being a deacon when you become a priest, so often in the context of a Mass, the deacon will be another priest from the parish. The deacon's main role in the service is to assist the priest, and to read the Gospel. Sub-deacons can be lay people (I've done it a number of times), but still get to wear the fancy vestments; their role in the service is mostly confined to reading the Epistle and looking pretty/ pious.
There's no rules about what you can or can't put on a chasuble or dalmatic (what the deacon wears) or tunicle (what the sub-deacon wears), though if you've ever spent any time at bad vestments you may come to think it isn't a bad idea.
Often the chasuble will have a cross on the back (and front), as in this nice black set**; the symbolism is obvious, especially in an eastward facing Mass, where the priest spends a large chunk of time facing away from the congregation, so as you look at the altar you can also focus on the cross (rather than on the priest's face, as in a westward-facing Mass). But you might just have a panel of ornamental fabric - as in this rather fine antique French set. The only real rule is that the deacon and sub-deacon's kit is less fancy; the 'H' shape, or vertical bars, is common, but I don't believe it has any meaning.
The chasuble/ dalmatic/ tunicle is worn over a cassock, an amice (which is a square white cloth with strings at the corner which you tie round your neck to hide your collar) and an alb, a long white collarless garment. All the vestments have short prayers associated them which the priest says as he puts them on, though the only one I can remember off hand is the one for the amice which says something about the helmet of salvation (this makes more sense than you'd think, because to put it on securely you have to put the cloth on your head, tie the strings round your chest, and then pull the amice proper down and adjust it so it lies well). Actually it has a practical purpose as well as a symbolic one, because it stops you sweating into the alb or, worse still, the chasuble/ dalmatic. Amices are much easier to wash.
The dalmatic, incidentally, used to be Byzantine court dress; most of the vestments seem to originate in ordinary "good" clothes.
* There's a good guide to what happens at Mass, with some reasonable pictures, here. NB that the 'fogginess' of some of the pictures is not poor picture quality, it's smoke.///
**The whole gallery is worth a look, if you're interested in vestments, as it explains what the priest wears, but I warn you that (a) Fr Yenda apparently can't spell and (b) he has disgustingly camp taste in lacy albs and (c) very few people actually wear maniples these days, though - unlike albs made entirely from lace - I think that's a bit of a shame. Though given my natural clumsiness, possibly I shouldn't try to revive the custom, as it ceases to be pious and reverent when you catch the chalice as you turn round....
(no subject)
Date: 2011-05-17 09:43 am (UTC)I got such smears on my cotta once. They still haven't entirely come out (wd be grateful for any hints?)